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PUBLISHED BY '^RDKR OF 



THE NORTHEASTERN OHIO TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



{{^■Oym^'Urj^is-yH.^ '^/-^^ 



9$. ^/(^^.../. 



OUR 



CoMMOiN-SciIOOL EdUTATION; 



)irTRESSI0N ON THE COLLEGE COURSi: 



I'reKident of ffiram QoUcgi'. 



HUSHED HY OliDKi: OF -WW, NOUTH-EASTliKN OHIO TKACHKKS' 
ASSOCIATION. 




CLEVELAND, O.: 

ROBISON, SAVAGE & CO., PKINTEitS AND STATIONi 
1877. 



v^;. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



This Paper was read before the North-Eastern Ohio Teachers' Association, at 
a meeting held in Cleveland, December 9, 1870. The Association unanimously 
requested its publication, and voted to make it the basis of future discussion. 
So much for its external history. 

The Author disclaims having attempted, as his title may perhaps implj-, a 
complete sm-vey of our Common-School Education. He appears as a critic, and 
therefore omits manj' points that a complete view would include. He well knows 
that some of the features complained of, have their compensations. Nor does he 
claim that what he has said, is the last word. He hasstudied the subject with much 
care; he has spoken his strong convictions, and submits what he has wTitteu as 
an humble contribution to the discus.sion of important themes. 

Since the Paper was read to the As.sociation, it has been revised throughout. 
The Author has ventured to add, what only the great length of the Paper pre- 
vented him from reading at the Cleveland meeting, a few paragraphs on the 
woman question in the schools. 

No one knows better than the Author that there are excellent rhetorical i-ea- 
sons for not admitting the long digression on the College Com-se. But as this 
topic runs parallel with his own proper one— more, as his own work lies rather in 
that field — he hopes the rhetorical reasons may be waived. 



OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 



The Common Scliool is i\ modern thout;;!!!. Antiqnitv gave si 
certain amount and kind of education to a few ; the Middk^ 
Ages did the same for a still smaller number: Init it was left for 
modern times to conceive the thought of ])opular education, and 
to provide the machinery for carr\'ing it out. From Avhat source 
or sources this thdught sprung, by what spirit it was animated, 
Avhen and by whom it was first conceived, by Avliat stages and 
under what influences it has grown, how far and by Avhat means 
it has been realized in different countries, — all these are imjiort- 
ant and deeply interesting questions. Init they lie outside Ihe 
field of tlie present dii^cussion. 

In no country has the Common School taken deeper root than 
in our own. We may not equal the foremost nations of the Old 
WorJd in our liberal, technical, and art cultui-e; but we yield to 
none of them in our devotion to popular elementary education . 
It has been well said : "Unquestionably the most distinctive char- 
acteristic of iVmerican education is the prevalence of popular pri- 
mary schools throughout the vast territory of the United States ' 
President Oilman, from whom the sentence is quoted, thus con- 
tinues : 

" The systt'ui upon which thej' are organized is a growth and not a creation. 
It was not imported from any European counti-y. Its germ was planted by the 
earliest colonists, — but the tree which has sprung from the germ would amaze 
the original planters. Its development is not due to the arguments of any philoso- 
pher or the wisdom of anj- legislator. It has been gradually influenced Ijy th<^ 
ecclesiastical, political, and social requirements of the country. Theoretically, 
it has man J- defects; practically, it is adapted to the circumstances of the land. 
No Em-opean country is likely to adopt it ; the Americans will not abandon it. 
It is the pride of the ijeople ; the satisfaction of the poor man ; and the i)rotection 
of the rich man. Its influence in the promotion of intelligence and jirosiierity 
in the Northern and Eastern States has been rated so liigh, that every new State 
adopts it without question. "* 

* "Education in America, 1770 — 1876," the Nbrfh American Ra'ien', Jan'y, 187C' 



6 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

In how many of the original States our system of common 
schools sprang np indigenously, at what time and under what 
conditions, I am not here concerned to inquire. Its first appear- 
ance is nowhere else so plainly marked as in Massachusetts ; nor 
did it in any other State appear at so early a date. The original 
order of the General Court, long since become classic, bears date 
November 11, 1647, and reads thus : 

"It is, therefore, ordered, that every township in this jurisdiction, after the 
Lord has increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith 
appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him 
to read and write, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters 
of such children, or by the inhabitants in gene'ral, by way of supply, as the 
major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; 
provided, those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more 
thanrthey can have them taught for in other towns. And it is further ordered, 
that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or 
householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able 
to instruct youth so far as they may befitted for the university; provided, that 
if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year, tliat every such 
town shall pay five pounds to the next school till they shall perform this order." 

Without stopi^ing to look into the early history of popular 
education in the old Middle States, much less in the Southern 
States, I may fairly call .this classic statute the germ of the 
American school system. It contains in embryo all its essential 
features. They are thus described by President Oilman : "Lo- 
cal responsibility, state oversight, moderate charges or gratuitous 
instruction, provision for all and not for the poor alone; and a 
recognition of three harmonious grades, — the primary school, the 
grammar school, and the university." The common-school idea 
may have worked independently from other centers, and- proba- 
bly did ; all the other States have not borrowed it from Massa- 
chusetts ; but if Virginia be the mother of States and of states- 
men, Massachusetts is the mother of schools. 

This Massachusetts tree first overspread New England. In 
those States it became well rooted more than a century ago. 
While Connecticut was still a colony of Great Britain, her gov- 
ernor, in answer to the home government, said: ''One-fourth 
the annual revenue of the colony is laid out in maintaining free 
schools for the education of our children .'"' lience, we should 
rather speak of the New England than the Massachusetts school 
system. Wlien emigration to the West set in, the tide bore the 
school system alona:. Cuttino;s from the New England tree 



OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 7 

were thickly planted in the region of the Great Lakes and in the 
valley of the Mississippi, as far south as the mouths of the Ohio 
and Missouri ; they have been carried over the Rocky Mountains 
and planted on the Pacific Slope. President Dwight's descrip- 
tion of the New England schools in 1803 is just as true at suc- 
ceeding periods of the new communities of the West, — of Ohio 
and Michigan, of Illinois and Wisconsin, of Iowa and Minnesota, 
and onward as far as civilization has gone : 

" A stranger traveling through New England marks with not a little surprise 
the nniltitude of school houses appearing everywhere at little distances. Fa- 
miliarized as I am to the sight, they have excited no small interest in my mind; 
particularly as I was travelling through the settlements recently begun. Here, 
while the inhabitants were still living in log huts, they had not only erected 
school houses for their children, but had built them in a neat style, so as to throw 
an additional appearance of deformity over their own clumsy habitations. This 
attachment to education in New England is universal ; and the situation of that 
hamlet must be bad indeed which, if it contain a sufficient number of children 
for a school, does not provide the neces.sary accommodations. In 1803 I found 
neat school houses in Colebrook and Stewart, bordering on the Canadian line."* 

More recently the New England idea has been making consid- 
erable headway in quarters where New England ideas were not 
once welcome — tiie old Slave States. A Governor of Virginia 
<»nce wrote : '' I thank God there are no free schools and print- 
ing presses, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years." 
But that feeling is now rapidly yielding to the American spirit. 
The sentiment first formulated in Connecticut, '' Our public 
schools must be cheap enough for the poorest, and good enough 
for the best," has become the distinct aim and purpose of three- 
fourths of the States and of the people of our Union. 

In our Centennial year, our common schools constitute a highly 
complex and differentiated, a vast and powerful system. The 
machinery of this system is tens of thousands of school houses, 
thousands of libraries, vast illustrative apparatus, boards of 
directors and boards of examiners. Normal Schools and Insti- 
tutes, reports and bureaus, commissioners and superintendents, 
and more than a quarter of a million of teachers. In the towns 
and cities, the system has taken on a form especially complex and 
costly. There are the primary, grammar, and high schools, with 
their grades, A, B, C, and D, not to mention the minor divi- 
sions which a layman can hardly keep in bis head while hearing 

* Quoted by President Gilman in K A. Review, Jan., 187(). 



8 Ol'R COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

them ; eacli one of which divisions is supposed to represent 
some definable stage in the training of a mind. There are the 
teachers of the various grades, from tlie primary teacher up by 
way of the jmncipal to the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
aud his staff of assistants. Behind these come trooping in the 
Kinter-garten teachers, the normal and training teachers, fol- 
lowed by the music-and drawing-masters — each one having his 
bundle of rei^orts under his arm and his sheet of percentages 
in his hand. The whole body of public school teachers consti- 
tute an intelligent, active, and powerful profession ; presenting 
in some respects the appearance of an hierarchy of education. 
The statistics of the system are overwhelming. Here are some 
of the- more striking, selected from the Report of the National 
Commissioner of Education, for 1874 :* 

Estimated value of School Property .$105,753,447 

Income of Schools 82,158,905 

Paid for School sites, Buildings, and Furniture 15,045,008 

Salaries of Teachers aud Superintendents 47,C38,0<)8 

Miscellaneous Expenditures 11 ,703,095 

Total Expenditures 74,974,338 

Permanent School Fund 75,251,008 

Pupils enrolled in Schools 8,099,981 

Average daily Attendance ' 4,521,564 

Number of Teachers 241,300 

In 1874 there were eighteen states and territories that ex- 
pended for free education more than ten dollars per ccqnta for 
the average attendance in the public schools ; ten that expended 
more than fifteen dollars ^;pr capita , and four that expended 
more than twenty dollars yer cainta. What is more, the ex- 
penditures are increasing with surprising rapidity. f^ays Mr. 
Francis Adams, Secretary of the National Education League 
for England : 

" Throughout the Union the expenditui-e for school purposes was doubled 
during the ten years" from 1850 to 1800, aud almost trebled between 18G0 and 
1870. The amount raised by taxation in 1860 was two and a half times the 
amomit raised in 1850'; while the amount thus raised in 1870 was more than 
three times that of 1860. During the twenty years expiring in 1870 the popula- 
tion had increased about 70 per nnt. , and the aggregate amount expended for 
education had increased to six times the sum raised in 1850. The school income 
derived from taxation is more than eight times as large. In 1850 the amount 
raised by taxation was less than one-half the entire amount, while in 1870 it 
was nearly two-thirds. "+ 

* See pp. xiii — xxi. 

+ Free Schools of the Jlnited States. London, 1875, jip. 69, 71). 



r 



Ol'R (OMMOX-SCJIOOL EDrc.VTIOX. 9 

111 all the schools supported by these fuuds, instruction is 
absolutely free ; the rate bill is no longer known in the United 
States. "If there is one question." says the writer just quoted. 
" upon which the citizens of the United States are practically 
unanimous, it is in support of free schools." 

Xor does this widely-expanded system stand on the ground 
like a bundle of straw, liable to be thrown down by every passing 
breeze. Beginning with Massachusetts in 1780, it has. firmly 
rooted itself in State constitutions and laws ; so that, in the 
majority of States, it is as deeply rooted as the system of penal 
institutions. It cannot be destroyed without rooting it out of 
the national heart, and also upheaving some of the foundation 
stones of our society. Well may thee volution of such a system 
have required more than two hundred years I AVcll may an in- 
telligent foreigner studying our life sa\ : 

"Those who have known America best and longest will agi-ec that, whethei- 
the attachment of Americans for free schools is foinicled on good and solid 
reasons or otherwise, there cannot be the slightest doubt that it exists, and that 
it forms one of the most striking features in the national character."* 

In view of the foregoing facts, what wonder that we should 
contemplate this great' school system with a good deal of com- 
placency ! What wonder that we should conclude that, in tiie 
best sense of the word, we are making "rapid educational prog- 
ress ! With few exceptions, the teachers and other school func- 
tionaries say we are ; and the great public acquiesces with the 
schoolmasters. With the ^exception of a few scarcely audible 
voices to the contrary, there is a want of either the inclination 
or the courage to say nay. 

The arguments urged to prove real progress, in great degree 
are set forth in the sketch already drawn : the great increase in 
the number, and improvement in the kind, of school houses ; 
more and better school apparatus and furniture ; more teachers 
and higher wages. Did these premises legitimate the conclusions 
drawn from them, there would be no room for controversy ; 
for no one would dream of denying the facts. Probably it is 
true, though it has not been statistically proved, that the phy- 
sical apparatus of education has kept pace with our material pro- 
gress. But it Avill be noticed that the argument thus far rests 
on the mere husk of education and does not touch its kernel. 

- Mr. Adams: Free Srhooh of the J 'idled Stutes, p. S4. 



10 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION^. 

No educator will think it conclusive, since there is no necessary, 
though there may be a probable, connection between the skeleton 
of a school system and its soul. Here we are liable to fall into a 
dangerous fallacy. One school system is not better than another 
simply because it covers more ground and costs more money. 
The worth of a college or university is not measured by the 
number of square yards of plastering on its Avails ; if it were, 
then many an American college would surpass the most famous 
universities of Germany. In the case of a college the essential 
questions are, " What are its traditions ?" and " What is 
the quality of its instruction ?" Nor do statistics of buildings, 
grounds, furniture, apparatus, libraries, and salaries necessarily 
reveal the real state of education in a country. Statistics of 
literacy and illiteracy go a good deal farther ; but there is a 
good deal pertaining to education — some will say the largest and 
best part of it — that cannot be exhibited in columns of statistics 
and in graphic illustrations. This is no disparagement of edu- 
cational statistics ; they have their value ; but, really, the differ- 
ence between culture and the want of culture cannot be very 
well shown by the statistician and the map-drawer. It is ditfi- 
cult to weigh and measure spiritual qualities. To illustrate the 
argument, I cannot help quoting from the Report of the School 
Committee of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the year 1875 : 

" As regards the material apparatus of education, all except the rudest 
shelter has been erected within and far within the century. There now stands 
on Brighton Street the one-story wooden building which in 177(5 was the prin- 
cipal schoolhouse in Cambridge. Its former position was not far from the 
Washington Elm. In 1831 it was sold for eighty dollars, removed to its present 
site, and converted into a dwelling house. In that building, which can never 
have had an interior as attractive as that of a decent stable, flourished a succes- 
sion of teachers, many of whom rose to the highest places in Church and State, 
while among their pupils were not a few whose reputation has been national oi- 
world-wide." 

No, the most important conditions of education arc not an ex- 
cellent })hysical apparatus ; tliey are competent and devoted 
teachers and eager pupils. A great teacher will make a. great 
school almost anywhere, as Pestalozzi did in the old convent at 
Stanz, where, in the words of Quick, "his whole school appara- 
tus consisted of .himself and his pupils." 

But the eulogists of the popular system do not rest the argu- 
ment on its physical apparatus. They claim a great improve- 
ment in teachers, in books, and in methods.' Generally they pass 



OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 11 

lightly over the qualities of the teacher— fullness of knowledge, 
power to think, ability to stimulate thought, experience, weight 
of character, devotion to the work ; but they make up for their 
reticence on this point by the stress they place on books and 
methods. Here is part of the Hun. George S. Hillard's com- 
mendatory notice of a popular school geography : 

" I envy the boys and girls who are to study Geography in this excellent 
compendium, and I look back with a sigh of regret upon the dry husks and in- 
nutritious chaff on which it was my lot to feed when I was a boy. The latest 
product of the Ames Plow Company is not more superior to tho rude instru- 
ments described by Virgil in the Georgics, than is this treatise to that which I 
studied." 

One who reads this glowing eulogy cannot help wondering 
whether Mr. Hillard's grandson really does make more progress 
with the new book than his grandfather did with the old one ! 
Nor can he help reflecting that, some way, Mr. Hillard and oth- 
ers of his generation, despite the "dry husks" and " innutri- 
tious chaff" found in the old text-books, managed to prepare 
themselves very well for the work of the world. 

The part that the " new methods " play in the current theories 
of education is sometliing wonderful. Whatever else he may or 
may not have, each teacher has his kit of "methods." Sometimes, 
when he sees the emphasis placed on mere machinery, one is 
tempted to ask whether school houses, furniture, apparatus, 
books, and processes will not be so perfected by and by as to make 
education wholly mechanical, and to dispense with the wise teacli- 
er and eager pupil altogether. How we commiserate our fathers 
and mothers, as well as remoter ancestors, who lived and died 
before the " improvements " in education were made ! If their 
training was as inferior to ours as their " opportunities " are as- 
sumed to fall below our oj)portunities, then we can allow them 
no more than a very rudimentary education ; they were stam- 
mering readers and poor spellers, save perhaps in monosyllables, 
while in arithmetic they could make only simple calculations, 
and these mostly "in their heads"! Whether we f^ read and 
spell better than they did, whether we do calculate and reason 
better, whether we are better disciplined and make more out of 
life, — are questions rarely discussed on grounds of fact, but con- 
stantly assumed on grounds of theory. 

Let us, then, boldly ask. Is the quality of our common- 
school education improving ? Be it noted, the question 



12 OUK COMMO^T-SCHOOL EDITCATIOIS'. 

is not whether our school system has been greatly extended, 
whether more children enjoy its benefits, whether it costs more 
money, whether there are more and more learned teachers, or 
whether the physical apparatus has been greatly improved ; no one 
thinks of denying these propositions. Nor is it whether the com- 
mon-school pupil of to-day is taught more things than the com- 
mon-school pupil of fifty or a hundred years ago; for that ques- 
tion is as undeniable as the others. But the question is this : 
Whether we read and write, spell and cipher, better than our an- 
cestors one, two, or three generations ago. 

At the outset we encounter this difl&cultv — to find a common 
standard of measure. There are but two methods of proced- 
ure. One is, by means of historical testimony, written or tradi- 
tional, to determine the attainments of former generations of 
pupils, and then to compare them with the attainments of this 
generation. Such testimony, especially in a written form, is 
meagre, not to speak of its vagueness and uncertainty. The 
other method is to take the opinions of those yet living who had, 
either by experience or tradition, immediate knowledge of the 
instruction formerly given in the schools. But here we meet that 
habit of mind which leads us, after we pass a given year-line, to 
disparage the present and to exalt the past. As a man grows 
older, provided he grows in culture, his standard of judgment 
grows with him. In the present case, he measures two genera- 
tions of children, and does not notice that while he is doing so 
his meter changes in his hands. Perhaps a third method may be 
suggested, — to observe the training of those persons still living 
who were trained under the former order of things. But'because 
the inquiry is difficult we should not shrink from it ; rather, 
using such methods as we have, let us essay the task. 

In the first place, there is a considerable number of people 
who do not see that what the schoolmasters tell them is true. 
But the other day a lady forming one of a company where this 
question was raised — a lady of much more than ordinary intel- 
ligence and character — said : '" All I can say about it is, my chil- 
dren are not as far along with their studies as I was with mine 
at their ages." A man has only to keep his ears open, at most, 
to provoke frequent conversations on this subject, to learn that 
the class wh© will give similar testimony is a large and respecta- 
})le one. In fact, while it is the understanding that we have been 



OIR (()M.M()X-S( IIOOI. EIUC.VTIOX. 13 

making great advances in tlie (luality of our common education, 
and while it takes some courage to say nay, there is, unex- 
jiressed, a hirge amount of incredulity on this point, and a wide- 
spread dissatisfaction with the results of the popular system. 
Reference is here made chiefly to intelligent persons outside the 
teaching profession who do not make especial in-etentions to 
culture. These persons may be wrong, luit they are entitled to 
lie heard. 

In the second place, there is a class of highly cultured men, 
.some of them educators, who do not join in the iDwans to the 
l)revalent system. On the contrary, they say the present results 
are inferior to the best results of a century ago. For example, 
the Report of the School Committee of Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, for 1875, in a comparison of these results, says : 

'• There is reason to believe that more and better work was done by om- 
sfhools in the early days of the Republic than is accomplished now." 

This Report was written by Dr. A. P. Pea body, of Harvard 
College. In an address delivered before the Massachusetts Con- 
vention of Teachers,* in January, 1876, Dr. Peabody returns to 
the subject, thus : . 

" The schools of former generations in New England (hi most other parts of 
the coimtry the common school is a very modern institution), though by any 
now recogiiized staudai-d of comparison very far inferior to the present, did 
nmch more for their pupils tnan is done now." 

He says tiie former condition of things, its merits as well as 
its demerits, has become obsolete ; still he " believes it accom- 
plished more for the fit education of the citizen than is effected 
under the ])resent re(/ime." This testimony, given under the 
shadow of our oldest college, may be mistaken; but it cannot be 
whistled out of the way. 

The difficulty of finding a common standard of measurement 
iuis already been remarked upon. Perhaps the best standard 
that occurs is the West Point examinations, particularly the ex- 
aminations of candidates for admission to the Academy. Here is 
a large number of candidates each year ; they come from all 
parts of the Union ; they are of about the same age, one year Avith 
another ; they are examined by experienced teachers, generally 
holding their places during good behavior. Fortunately, a rec- 



- "The Relation of Public Scliools to the Civil Government. "— TAe VnUarian 
Jferic", July, 1876. 



14 OUK COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ord of these examinations has been kept for nearly forty years. 
The results have been tabulated and published. All educators, 
and especially common-school teachers, should be interested in 
the verdict that West Point has given on our common schools. 
The Board of Visitors of the Academy for the year 1875, com- 
posed of army and navy officers, members of Congress, and citi- 
zens from private life, some of them well known educators, in 
their Keport make these remarks : 

" It is a very suggestive fact that in the last five years the average number 
of rejected candidates has been 6 per cent, for physical deficiency, and 40 per 
cent, for deficiency in the scholastic requirements. In the six New England 
States, where educational facilities are open to .all, the rejections have been 35 
per cent, of the number examined from that section. From these statistics it is 
clearly evident that in the schools of the country there is need of more thorough 
methods of instruction in the elementary branches." 

The Keport also contains the following memorandum from 
Professor Church, an experienced West Point teacher, and the 
author of well-known mathematical works : 

"United States Military Academy, 
"June 12, 1875. 
' ' Referring to our conversation this morning, I have to say that from my 
experience in the examination of candidates for admission to the Military 
Academy, I am satisfied that there is somewhere a serious defect in the system 
of instruction, or in its application, in the schools of our country for education 
in the elementary branches, particularly in arithmetic, reading, and spelling. 
I think our candidates are not as thoroughl}^ prepared as they were twenty 
years ago. " Very respectfully yom-s, 

"A. E. Church, Prof." 

Now, what have our public-school teachers to say to this ? 
What do they propose to do with an old West Point examiner 
who charges a " serious defect " in their methods of teaching 
the elementary branches, " particularly arithmetic, reading, and 
spelling"? Evidently, Prof. Church should have his attention 
called to the educational statistics printed in the Census Reports 
and in the Reports of Commissioner Eaton. He ought, at least, 
to be compelled to attend an Institute, and to listen to some lec- 
tures on the "new methods." 

But ihe West Point authorities fnrnish the evidence on which 
they base their indictment of the public schools. Part of it is 
found in the following * 

* The columns headed "Appointment Cancelled," "Declined Appoint- 
ment," and "Failed to Report," as not bearing on the present question, are 
omitted. 



OUR (;OMMOX-SCHOOL EDUOATION, 



lo 



STATEMENT, 

Showing the Number of Vaiulidatcs for Cadetshlps appointed to the United States 
Military Academy, the Number Rejected, and the Number Admitted, 

From 1838 to 1874, inclusive. 





n 

I 
g 




For Want of QuaVflcation in-\ 


1 


1 






bi 


>UI 


i 


6 


■^ 


i 


— 


Of whom there Gkadtjated 


W 


fk 




.5 


B 


S 


< 


s 


a 




R < 


p. 


four j-cars thereafter— 


>* 




% 


1 




O 


s 


1 


1 


11 


o 




1838 


133 


2 


1 


1 


1 


1 


~v 








1 


111 


54, or 48.6 per cent. 


1839 


91 


2 








1 


3 











1 


76 


34, or 44.7 per cent. 


1840 


106 


8 





1 


1 


8 











2 


84 


22, or 26.1 per cent. 


1841 


131 


8 


6 


4 


1 


6 














114 


34, or 29.8 per cent. 


1843 


144 


17 


4 


5 


6 


8 











9 


109 


47, or 43. 1 per cent. 


1843 


77 


6 





5 


5 


4 











8 


60 


29, or 48.3 per cent. 


1844 


96 


14 


4 


7 


1 


13 











1 


75 


34, or 45.3 per cent. 


1845 


98 


9 


3 


1 


, 1 


7 











1 


81 


40, or 49.3 per cent. 


1846 


131 


5 


2 





3 


4 











1 


103 


41, or 39.8 per cent. 


1847 


84 


1 


1 





1 














3 


74 


35, or 47.2 per cent. 


1848 


84 


2 


1 


1 


2 


2 














81 


38, or 46.9 per cent. 


1849 


95 


























2 


88 


42, or 47.7 per cent. 


1850 


98 


3 


1 


2 


2 


3 











2 


90 


40, or 44.4 per cent. 


m5i 


81 


3 


1 


3 


3 


3 














71 


31, or 43.5 per cent. 


1852 


102 


7 


4 


5 


5 


4 











3 


90 


44, or 48.8 per cent. 


1853 


97 


6 


2 


2 


2 


5 











1 


83 


36, or 39.7 per cent. 


1854 


120 


4 





2 


2 


3 













£(1^ 


S 20,4yrs.,or43.5p.ct. 
■( 22,5yrs.,or39.3p.ct. 


1855 


99 


7 


4 


6 


6 


2 











t' 


80 


37,5yrs.,or40.3p.ct. 


1856 


101 


17 


2 


5 


12 


6 











4 


72 


44,5yrs.,or61.1p. ct. 


1857 


132 


26 


8 


19 


18 


13 











9 


82 


32, or 39 per cent. 


1858 


108 


19 


6 




11 


13 











4 


75 


24, or 33 per cent. 


1859 


91 


26 


8 


24 


24 


8 














60 


30, or 33.3 per cent. 


1860 


84 


12 


4 




7 


7 














73 


37, or 37.5 per cent. 


1861 


148 


13 


3 


4 


4 


10 











2 


107 


63, or 58 8 per cent. 


1862 


96 


11 


1 


8 


7 


4 














81 


38, or 46.9 per cent. 


1863 


126 


9 


4 


6 


6 














3 


99 


58, or 58.5 per cent. 


1864 


101 


15 


4 


11 


11 


9 














73 


46, or 63 per cent. 


18&5 


101 


16 


8 


13 


12 


12 











4 


74 


36, or 48.6 per cent. 


1866 


95 


17 


7 


9 


9 


13 











1 


70 


45, or 64.3 per cent. 


1867 


84 


19 


2 


15 


10 


8 


8 


7 


9 


1 


55 


33, or 60 per cent. 
53, or 73.5 per cent. 


1868 


127 


34 


8 


12 


13 


16 




15 


19 


3 


76 


1869 


112 


24 


5 


13- 


13 


9 


17 


13 


13 


7 


70 


40, or 59.1 per cent. 


1870 


163 


73 


15 


30 


30 


28 


54 


42 


40 


4 


65 


37, or 56.9 per cent. 


1871 


131 


32 


3 


10 


10 


15 


24 


15 


22 


11 


76 


43, or 56.57 per cent. 


1872 


165 


35 





19 


19 


11 


17 


18 


15 


20 


95 




1873 


230 


74 


5 


28 


28 


30 


50 


49 


29 


13 


118 




1874 


175 


66 


4 


25 


25 


30 


46 


r 


19 


4 


89 





The following summary makes a striking impression : 

In 1840, out of 106 candidates, 8 failed in examination. 

"1850, " 98 " 3 

" 1860, " 84 " 13 

" 1870, " 163 " 73 

" 1874, " 175 " 66 



16 OUR rOMMON'-SCnOOL edication, 

It slioiild be noted, that, prior to 186G, the candidates were ex- 
amined in reading, writing, orthography, and arithmetic, only ; 
and that in 1866 grammar, geography, and history were added 
lis additional reqnirements. This should be borne in mind in 
comparing the ratios of those rejected Avith those appointed, at 
different periods But, making due allowance for this element, 
the ratio is still alarming ; eight to one hundred and six in 1840, 
and sixty-six to one hundred and seventy-five in 1874 ! But the 
proper way is, to compare those deficient in the sanie branches, 
as orthography and arithmetic, at different periods. 

When these statistics were first brought to my attention, [ 
wrote to Prof. Church, asking, especially, wliether the examiners 
liad not, perhaps unconsciously, raised the standard in the same 
branches, and whether the candidates were equal in other re- 
spects to those of twenty years ago. I thought it possible that 
the army had fewer attractions now than then for intelligent 
and enterprising boys, hi a long letter, that he has kindly given 
me permission to use at my discretion, he says the subject has 
been one of serious thought to him for a long time ; that for 
thirty-five years he has borne an active part in examining the 
West Point candidates, studying with interest and care their 
character and attainments ; and that he can hardly be mistaken 
•*' with reference to the facts, though he may be with regard to 
the inferences." In reply to my two most pointed questions, he 
writes : 

" I do not think we have raised our standard of requirement in any one 
branch. As far as possible, we have eudeavoi'ed to keep this the same from 
year to j^ear, though we have lately been more sti'iet in our ijreliminary exam- 
inations, and thus perhaps discover more deficiencies than we would under a 
less vigoi-ous system. I should say that the opinion I have so emphatically ex- 
pressed [as to the deterioration of the school training of candidates], is npt 
founded alone upon the knowledge exhibited in these ijreliminary examin.ttions, 
nor upon the increased number of failures, but as well upon the knowledge 
exhibited by those who have, after admission, come at once under my personal 
instruction. '' 

Again : 

" I cannot say that I observe anj- difference in the class of candidates. The 
number of aiDplications for the position increases, I am mformed, fi-om year to 
year ; and appointmeiats are made annually to fill nearly every vacancy in the 
different congressional districts and at large. They come, as ever heretofore, 
from every class of society in our land, from the rich and the poor, high 
and low." 



OUB COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 17 

He says further, " the thorough preparation of those who 
were about to enter upon our rather severe course, in the simple 
branches of arithmetic, reading, and writing, including orthog- 
raphy," 'Mias with our Board been a matter of deep concern'*; 
but that, notwithstanding all the attempts to improve such pre- 
paration by circulars calling the attention of candidates to 
existing defects, the tendency has been steadily downward. At- 
tainments in the studies added in 1866 to the preliminary 
requirements, are below those in the old studies, but there is no 
tendency towards improvement. Even "the greater frequency 
of competitive examinations for the place" has not been followed 
by any marked change. At this stage of the discussion I quote 
only one further paragraph : 

" I may instance the facts that the number rejected as poor readers, is now 
and always has been small ; yet it is observable that the proportion of intelli- 
gent readers is ranch smaller than formerly. In spelling, the examination has 
always been strict, and, as near as we can make it, our standard the same; yet 
more are rejected and more ordinary spellers are found among those admitted. 
In arithmetic likewise, with the same standard of attainment, as far as my long 
experience can make it, while the proportion rejected has increased, I find as 
well in those admitted less accuracy in definitions and rules, less ability to give 
clear reasons, and less facility in the application of the principles whenever 
required in other branches of their mathematical course." 

It may be objected to any conclusions based upon the West 
Point statistics, that there have been great social and political 
changes in the Southern States which naturally throw tlie ap- 
pointments into inferior hands, and that the great increase in the 
number rejected at the Academy is thus to be explained. Prof. 
Church himself finds in this a partial explanation, for in his 
letter he mentions the "unorganized condition of the schools in 
some of the Southern States." But that this explanation is 
wholly inadequate, is clear from his statements given above. 
Such an explanation is also precluded by the fact stated by the 
Visitors, viz: "In the six New England States, where educational 
facilities are open to all, the rejection has been 35 per cent, of 
the number examined from that section." But most of all is it 
negatived by another table, " showing States from which were ap- 
pointed candidates rejected by the Academic Board from 1838 
to 1874, inclusive." In such States as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Mas- 
sachusetts, Illinois, and New York the ratio of the admitted to 
the rejected has been rapidly increasing. 

What is more, General W. T. Sherman, in an Address deliv- 

2 



18 OFE COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATIOS^. 

ered early in the current year before the .Washington University, 
St. Louis, gives the West Point view of the public schools his 
emphatic endorsement, in the following words : 

"In these days when common schools have a strong hold on iDopular sym- 
pathy, it requires some courage to speak the truth ; but I hold that all who are 
interested in this great subject of education are indebted to Prof. Church and 
to the Board of Visitors for this note of warning. " 

The evidence now presented is as much as can be digested at 
one sitting. Perhaps it is not sufficient to prove a deterioration 
in the common-school education of the country. Perhaps evi- 
dence to justify that assertion has not been accumulated or does 
not exist, but that presented is certainly deserving of grave con- 
sideration. . It shows, at least, a considerable amount of dissat- 
isfaction- with the schools, and that this dissatisfaction is felt by 
persons of exceptional abilities and culture, as well as exceptional 
opportunities to get at the facts bearing on the present inquiry. 
Besides, it proves that our common-school education is not what 
it ought to be, and that our school system needs much criticism 
and revision. While I waive the further discussion of the ques- 
tion, whether we do read and spell better than our fathers and 
grandfathers, I avow the opinion that many of the tendencies of the 
prevalent system are wrong and need correction. What some of 
these tendencies are, will appear as I point out causes of 
the inferiority of our elementary instruction. In this task I 
shall draw freely from what Dr. Peabody* has written, and make 
a further very striking quotation from the letter of Prof. Church. 

Dr. Peabody alleges a deterioration of the material upon which 
the schools have to work. 

*' Almost all the scholars" [in 1776], he says, " came from families, if not cul- 
tivated, yet intelligent, in which knowledge was respected, learning honored, 
and in which the reading of such books as were attainable was in all cases the 
Sunday habit, in many cases the daily habit, of the household. . . . There 
was hardly a house in which the Bible was not more or less read, on Sundays if 
at no other time; and apart from the religious uses of the Bible, it is impossible 
to over-estimate its educational worth in the vast spaces which its history 
covers, in the broad scope and the unequaled loftiness and grandeur of its 
literature and poetry, and in the numerous directions in which its very silence 
awakens cnriosity, stimulates the imagination, quickens and energizes thought. 
Such study of the Bible as was simply normal in a New England farm-house 
of the last century was of itself sufficient to make a man, when he became of 
age, safe, sober, and trustworthy as a citizen. " 

* I quote from both the Cambridge Report and the Addi-ess. 



OUR CO.MMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 19 

Describing the present state of things, the Doctor says : 

" A very large proportion of the pupils in our cities and populous towns come 
from homes utterly destitute of culture, and of the means and the spirit of 
culture, where a book is never seen, and reading is with the adult members a 
lost art, or one never acquired. There are schools in which fom"-fifths, or more, 
of the pupils are of this class." 

Dr. Peabody is certainly a competent witness to what has been 
going on in New Enghmd within the last half century. Tliere 
can be no doubt that the material upon which her public schools 
work, is far inferior to what it was fifty or a hundred years ago ; 
nor can there be any doubt that the same process of deterioration, 
on the average, has been going on all over the country. It is per- 
fectly idle to hold that the 38,110,641 citizens of the United 
States in ! 870 jiresented as high an average of intelligence, of 
moral sobriety, of self control, as the 9,633,823 citizens of 1820. 
The dangerous social elements now are ten to one what they 
were then. A principal cause of this deterioration in the intel- 
lectual and moral character of our population, is, of course, the 
vast foi-eign emigration to our shores. Now, when one reflects 
how much the pupil's progress depends on his family and his 
home — on blood, on family traditions, on inherited culture — how 
much on the spirit and aspirations and habits of those imme- 
diately surrounding him, whether they are day by day wrestling 
with the problems of physical existence, or enjoying a compe- 
tence, not to say wealth ; whether their minds run wholly in the 
channels of business and politics, or partly in the channels of 
books and culture ; whether, in a word, the home-life is one of 
grovelling, money-getting, social gaieties, and political excite- 
ment, or of study, reflection, and spiritual seriousness, — when 
one reflects how much the pupil's progress depends on these con- 
siderations, he cannot help agreeing with Dr. Peabody that, in 
the character of our school population, we have the principal 
cause of the inferiority of our common education. 

In connection with the quality of the school material, in fact 
as a part of it, may be mentioned another of Dr. Peabody's 
points: " While a great deal more is said and written about edu- 
cation than formerly, the amount of time and energy devoted to 
it by those under instruction is very much less than it used to 
be." He makes two counts. Fii'st, the vacations — once hardly a 
week in the year, noAV three months at the least. But, second, he 
lays especial stress on the occuiutions of children out of school. 



20 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Once study at home was the constant rule; now, the infrequent 
exception. Once the school divided general attention only with 
the Church ; now it receives small attention save from its official 
guardians. More than all, children are now, in a measure, ab- 
sorbed in the distractions of business, of politics, and of social 
life. How little, relatively, can the teacher do for a pupil wlien 
the pupil eagerly reads the daily paper for exciting news, or 
when his mind is filled with the various forms of social dissipa- 
tion ! The thick geological strata were laid down in still waters : 
and the whirl and bustle and excitement incident to American 
life, and to which children are introduced all too soon, arc not 
favorable to deep and rich accumulations of learning. 

Leaving the material and approaching the school, Dr. Peabody 
complains of the rigid and tyrannous system of the graded 
schools. He says the former "inartificial method, or rather the 
absence of method,'' was well adapted to the social condition of 
New England a century or half a century ago. "There was no 
arbitrary or fixed arrangement of classes or plan of classification : 
but each scholar was vii-tually a class by himself, in some studies 
perhaps reciting alone, often out of school hours, in others 
associated with different companions according to his or her pro- 
ficiency." Now all this is changed. In place of an inartificial 
method or no-method, we have an educational liturgy, each gos- 
pel, collect, psalm, and prayer attended by its appropriate rubric. 
Against the current formalism of teachers, he directs some of 
his hardest blows. He says he has ''heard every member of a 
class of twenty obliged to repeat separately, ' one bean and two 
beans are three beans.'" Also, that he had listened to an object- 
lesson in which the teacher " spent several minutes in demon- 
strating, with a wonderful affluence of illustration, to children 
six or seven years old, that a horse had four legs and a child bur 
two''! A friend of mine- was once looking through the schools 
of a city very proud of its schools. In pointing out some note- 
worthy features of one of them, the Supervising Principal called 
attention to the fact that it required but three minutes after the 
bell struck to empty the building of its hundreds of occupants. 
As though the time consumed by a child in walking down stairs 
were an important feature of a school ! Here we are dealing with 
every-day criticisms on the common schools, and it is proper to in- 
quire how far they are just, and how far the features complained 
of can be removed. 



OUR COM>rON-SCHOOL EDUCATION'. 21 

First of all, we may as well understand that the prevalent sys- 
tem of schools, in its essential features, if we are to have com- 
mon schools at all, is inevitable. The argument for the graded 
system is, in tiie main, the advantages offered by the principle 
of the divi.sion of labor, and it is irrefutable. "We must accept 
the system as a man accepts his wife, "for better or worse." 
In the broadest sense President Oilman's words are true : "Theo- 
retically, it has many defects ; practically, it is adapted to the 
circumstances of the land." Dr. Peabody admits that, for the 
towns and cities, the graded system is a necessity. We may go 
farther and say, it is. taking everytiiing into account, a deside- 
ratum. If the educational labor of two centuries had been 
abortive, or if it had resulted in a monstrous progeny, we might 
well desi)air. Hut this is not saying that the system is as good 
as it can be made,, or that the graded school is the best place for 
a man to put his bright boy or girl, if he happens to have a 
bright one. This latter (juestion I do not discuss. But I do 
affirm that, if we are going to educate the vast armies of chil- 
dren found in tiie towns and cities especially, we must have a 
physical apparatus, a Jegal mechanism, and an organized force 
of teachers that are adeipiate to do the work. Sporadic and 
spontaneous movements are inadecjuate. Whatever the relative 
merits of the no-system method of tifty years ago and the all- 
system method of to-day, the former could no more do the 
work that now needs to be done than our military system in the 
war of 181^ would have answered the purposes of the nation in 
the late rebellion. But that this system has defects that are 
inherent and that can never be wholly eradicated, no thoughtful 
student of its theory and working, will dream of denying. Nor 
will such person think of affirming that, for the brightest and 
most promising children, whatever it may be for the dullard and 
the mediocre, tliQ public school is an ideal place of education. 

It cannot be denied, for example, that the graded-school sys- 
tem is exceedingly rigid and inelastic. Its tendency is to stretch 
all the pupils on the same bedstead. The public schools are 
common schools; they are for the common mind as well as for 
all the people. Children of all kinds and conditions are brought 
together in them ; those from homes where books are read and 
discussed and mental activity stimulated, and those from homes 
where books are never seen, and where all the surroundings are 



22 OUR roMMoy-srnooL educatiox^. 

stifling to intellectual life. Blood and training go for something 
in the exchange life ; and it is absurd to suppose that the chil- 
dren of ignorant parents, foreign or domestic, are on a par with 
those of good families having generations of intelligence or cul- 
ture behind them. Dr. Peabody speaks of a school once under 
his own supervision, where 99 jper cent, of the children were of 
the former class, and of another school in the same city wholly 
made np of children of intelligent parents. And yet it is diffi- 
cult, or rather, impossible, so to organize a system of public 
schools that these different kinds of children shall not be thrown 
together in the same schools and in the same classes. There are 
weighty objections to separating these children, that is, putting 
them in different schools ; and if it could be done the tendency 
would be- to equalize school and school,, as it now is to equalize 
pupil and pupil. Then, the tendency of the graded schools is to 
sacrifice the brightest children to the dullards or to the medio- 
cres. The dullest cannot be made to keep up with the brightest, 
when the latter are going at their normal pace ; but the best can 
be made to go as slowly as the dullest. Or, if the ability of the 
dullard be not the standard of achievement, then it is the ability 
of the mediocre. In no case do or can the brightest minds have 
a fair chance. There has been much discussion of the subject of 
promotions, and no wonder, since the grievances of his best pu- 
pils must continually disturb the conscience of the intelligent 
teacher ; but thus far there is no consensus of opinion, and there 
seems to be no possible method by which the best pupils can have 
all their rights. The graded-school system is thus an attempt to 
make equal the legs of the lame, — a thing that can never «be 
done, since both Nature and Revelation declare them unequal. 

Then there is the teacher's tendency to formalism and routine. 
Severa years ago I discovered that an elaborate school ritual 
had been evolved, and I am therefore gratified to find Dr. Pea- 
body speaking of a school " ritual and rubric." He says he has 
seen a '' fourth part of the time given to a reading or spelling- 
lesson occupied in meaningless evolutions and gestures pei-- 
formed by the scholars in the interval between leaving their 
seats and their resting in their final positions in front of the 
desk," — as who has not ? He also justly says the " school ritual 
and rubric " are ." very serviceable as a directory for new and 
feeble teachers, but embarrassing to those who are amply quali- 



Ol R COM A[()N- -SCHOOL EDt'CATIOX. 23 

fied to phiu and muiicige their own work." Many minds arc in- 
capable of using forms witliout becoming their shives. Perhaps 
it is not too much to say this is a tendency of our nature. Ke- 
ligious history is fruitful in illustrations. He is not an* irrev- 
erent in;in who sings : 

" AV'here others worship I but look and long; 

For, though not recreant to m3^ fathers' faith, 

Its forms to me ai-e weariness, and most 

That drony vacuum of compulsorj' prayer. 

Still pumping phrases for the Ineffable, 

Tliough all the valves of memory gasp and wheeze. 

Words that have drawn transcendent meanings up 

From the best passion of all bygone time, 

Steeped through with tears of triumph and remorse. 

Sweet %\ith all sainthood, cleansed in martyr-fires. 

Can they, so consecrate and so inspired. 

By repetition wane to vexing wind^" 

''A great deal df the fresh life which Horace Mann inlused 
into our schools is life no longer/' says Dr. Peabody, '-yet lin- 
gers on in a fossil state, petrifying, too, no less than petrilied." 
I, for one, find it impossible to believe, for example, that Teachers" 
Institutes are as stimulating and inspiring to teachers as they 
were twenty years ago. ' 

Again, under the present recjime the teacher does not and 
cannot stand in the same relation to the individual pupil that he 
did under the old. Now he handles classes; then he handled 
pupils. The graded-school system is a system of platoons, com- 
panies, regiments, briuades, and the like, and thus far no means 
have been devised for removing its platoon features. As a re- 
sult, the personal force of the teacher goes for less than it did 
before the platoon system. He is more of a schoolmaste-r. and 
less of an educator. Consequently, while the puj[)il gets more 
than he did formerly from the physical apptiratus of educiition, 
he gets less from the inspiration of the living teacher. 

There can be no doubt, I think, that the old no-system ])lan 
was more favorable to the progress of the active pupil than the 
present all-system plan is ; nor can it be doubted that it was 
much better adapted to developing individuality of character. 
The pupil's movements were unimpeded by arbitrary an-ange- 
ments and by dull companions. He worked more alone, and he 
was compelled to lean much less on the teacher and the class 
and to rely more on himself. But, at the same time, there can 



24 OUE COMMOK--SCHOOL EDUCATIOi?^. 

be DO doubt that, for the whole army, the all-system is better. 
The old-fashioned partizan Avarfare of the French Wars and of 
the Revolution, or even of the Border to-day, developed in the 
soldier a personal intrepidity and a fertility of resource that 
regular warfare does not; but partizan warfare never creates an 
army, and hence is not adapted to great military operations. 

The schools of New England a century or half century ago, 
with their irregular organization and want of method, un- 
doubtedly presented a higher average of achievement for the 
time and money spent than our graded schools of to-day can 
show ; but as a whole, they were much less imposing. What 
the partizan soldiers of the last century were to the Union army 
of this, that the old schools are to the new schools. The law 
of compensations holds here, as everywhere. You cannot have 
the greatest personal intrepidity and the best organization — the 
most individuality of character and the most imposing array of 
school children and schoolmasters. Tlie question is, How shall 
we combine elements most wisely ? 

I have spoken of certain defects of the graded system as in- 
herent, and as incapable of elimination. So they seem to me. 
But these defects exist in different degrees ; in a maximum or in 
a minimimi. The problem is to reduce them to a minimum— to 
make a system that must always be rigid and unyielding to a 
degree as elastic and pliable as possible. One of the great diffi- 
culties in the way of breaking up the platoon system is, want 
of teachers. When the public becomes willing to pay a teacher 
for taking charge of twenty-five children, the difficulties of the 
situation will become very considerably less. The troubles Miat 
partial differentiation has brought, fuller differentiation must 
cure. 

An incisive journalist, in commenting on President Eliot's 
paper, " W^ise and Unwise Economy in Schools,"* speaks of the 
averaging process carried on in the graded schools thus : 

" Now, it is obvious that forcing all this heterogeneous mass into one vast 
school-house to be educated can only mean one thing — a dull uniformity of 
training and discipline, which will tend for the time being as much as possible 
to wipe out all individual differences, to destroy individual ambition, and to 
produce in the end, as Mr. Eliot says, an 'average product,' a sort of mental, 
moral, and physical mean standard, which has been obtained quite as much by 

* The Atlantic Monthly, June, 1875. 



OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 25 

stunting what is good in the children educated as by forcing work out of the 
dull. In fact, the general result is a good deal like the result in an army of a 
uniform drill. You can obtain out of very indifferent material a good average 
soldier, who will stand fire, fight with coolness, and obey orders ; and so you 
can in a gigantic school turn out a well-drilled scholar, who will pass an exam- 
ination creditably, and who will be able to show a good record for industry ; 
but this is not education. What we want in education is the development, not 
the repression, of individuality at all points. * 

Auother criticism sometimes heard is. that thg scliool.s share 
the hurry and bustle of the age. General Sherman in "his ad- 
dress puts it thus : 

" Nearly all our common schools anil other preparatory schools have of late 
years been tempted to hm-ry their pupils forward too fast ; have led them to 
natural philosophy and the higher mathematics before they were well 
grounded in the rudiments— reading, writing, arithmetic, and geogi-aphy." 

Prof. Church lays great stress on the same point : 
'' It is particularly noticeable that as a class they [the West Point candidates] 
have studied many more branches than formerly. We have ever required each 
candidate to name on some one of his examination papeis every branch of 
study he has pursued, and the number thus received is far greater than form- 
erly, many lists including a large portion of the branches of a coUegiate 
coui-se— the higher branches of mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry ; 
and it is not unusual to find many of the names of these branches misspelled, 
and the candidate gro.ssly' deficient in the elements of arithmetic and gram- 
mar. * * * Though my opportimities of personally examining either the 
sj'stems or practical teaching in om- conuuon schools are very slight ; from 
careful inquiries of my own pupils and of others with whom I have been 
brought in contact, I must conclude that, in a very great degree, the fault lies 
in a want of thorough and long continued instruction in these very elementary 
branches. 

" It cannot be doubted, I think, that the teachers in the schools, as a class, are 
much more learned than formerly. Our Normal Schools and the greater atten- 
tion given to special preparation for teaching, as a profession, must have se- 
cured this desirable end, and we should natiu-allj- expect better results. But 
may it not be that, ambitious to lead their young pupils into the more interest- 
ing fields of knowledge which they themselves have acquired, and encouraged 
by parents who in this go-ahead age desire to see their children swiftly ad- 
vanced to higher classes, they [teachers] soon tire of the hard labor and close 
attention absolutely necessary to ti-ain the minds of beginners in the logical 
reasoning requii-ed in arithmetic and grammar, and of the continued repetition 
and painstaking necessarj- to form a fine reader and speller ? 

" In the days when I was familiar with the common schools of New England, 
our schoolmasters were required to teach a few elementary branches only. 
With these they were thoroughly familiar, as much so perhaps as the teachers 
of the present day v^ith their many. They had more time to devote to each 
branch, and were only ambitious to turn out thorough scholars in a few things 
rather than smatterers in many. I fear we have not improved on this good old 
system." 



* The Nation, No. 517. 



2i] OUR CO.MMOX-SCllOOL EDUdATIOX. 

These panigraphs touch the very core of a great difficulty in 
common-school education — I mean its undue expansion. The 
causes of this I shall soon state, but here the j)oint is this — when 
only elementary branches were taught in the schools — when the 
world moved slowly and the minds of children were not occu- 
jjied with a thousand other things — when the school divided 
with the Church the extra-home life of the child, and both were 
supported by the home, — then there was time to ground children 
in the rudiments of learning. Now the public-school course 
contains more of the higher studies than the college course did 
then ; the child is hurried from book to book and from class to 
class ; the day is divided into minute portions, and frittered 
away in driblets ; the child's mind is crowded with subjects our 
grandfathers reserved for maturer people ; and who can wonder 
that the common-school pupil, if very broad, is very shallow ? 
The tendencies of the teacher bear him in the same direction. 
He is anxious to get his scholars out of the one-bean-and-two- 
beans-make-three-beans period, into the more inviting fields 
beyond. Thus, he who ought to be a brakeman turns stoker. 
Parents, gratified with what is called "the progress" of their 
children, hurry the chase after many studies and sui-jerficialty in 
all of them. 

One of the causes of the undue expansion of the public-school 
studies has not yet been mentioned. Hoav enormously knowl- 
edge has increased within fifty years I New studies of the high- 
est interest and value have sprung into existence with a leap. In 
one point of view, these studies aid the teacher ; in another, 
they embarrass iiim. They constantly press for admission i<ito 
the public-school course, and it is almost impossible to deny them 
admission. They greatly complicate the question whether teach- 
ing should be for discipline or for information ; and, when that 
question is decided, .there remains the constantly increasing 
difficulty of making selections. One of the teacher's greatest 
troubles is what a Frenchman calls an embarras de richesses. An 
eager public, intent on making the public schools answer all the 
ordinary purposes of education, perplex him with their demands. 
What might be expected follows : many studies, small books, 
(witness the various '" Fourteen Weeks " and " Twelve Weeks " 
series), insufficient time, and superficiality. How enviable the 
life of the pedagogue in the good old times, when American life 



OIK COMMOSr-SCHOOL EDUCATIOK. 27 

was so wondrously simple ! He was expected to teach only a few 
things, but to teach them thoroughly. That done, he had the 
satisfaction of leaving Ijehind him, not a multitude of half-made 
impressions, but a few well-gained ac(|uisitions and a few well- 
defined habits of thought. 

Here a discussion of college ethication, in so far as it in- 
involves the feature last under discussion, will not be out of 
place. The public-school teachers are entitled to the consplation 
afforded by the fact, that the question of studies troubles college 
men quite as much as it troubles them. That this must be the 
fact, can best l)e shown by an outline sketch of college studies. 

The modern College roots in the Middle Ages; it is an offshoot 
of the medi.vval University, where, in the full sense, we find the 
Hrst course of study. This was the '• seven-pathed " course, di- 
vided into the tres vice, or trii'iwn, and the ^/i/afKar via', or 
quadrivi'um ; the first embracing grammar, logic, and rhetoric, 
the second music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. This 
cycle of seven liberal arts and sciences, called by the Gieeks 
encyclopcedia, constituted the education of the higher class of citi- 
zens in antiquity, and was considered the full orb or circle of 
learning. Thus Quintilian : "'OrhiH ilia docfrina' quam Grmci 
lY/jr/.hi-a'.dzia vorauf/' The scliools of the Middle Ages accepted 
this list of studies from the hands of antiquit^^ They regarded 
it as something complete, — something that returne I into itself 
like a circle, — something that bounded the field of liberal study. 
They signalized its completion by conferring on the student the 
Bachelor's degree. The Master's or Doctor's degree was con- 
ferred, not on those who had covered a broader field than the 
Bachelor, but on those who had cultivated that field more thor- 
oughly. How this course was regarded, is shown by its Greek 
\mmeencyclop(vdia. The scholastics called it curriculum, a word 
which means, first, a race-course, second, a finished career or life, 
and, third, the university course of study. This " seven-pathed"' 
course has undergone great changes ; studies have fallen out and 
studies have been introduced ; but the idea that " the course " is 
invested Avith the quality of comj)leteness, in some sense, has 
nev^r fallen out of the minds of those who may be called sys- 
tematic educators. 

The first course of study, then, consisted of grammar, logic, 
rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geomctrv, and astronomy. But with 



28 OUR COMMOIS'-SCHOOL EDUCATIOlSr. 

the revival of learning in the fifteenth century, the classical lan- 
guages and literatures began to knock for admission at the doors 
of the universities. The demand was resisted by the scholastic 
custodians of culture. But the battle was unequal. Men had 
become weary of poring over the scholastic studies,— weary, to use 
a figure of Whately's, of vainly threshing over the same straw and 
winnowing the same chaff ; and the new studies, with their 
wealth of new facts, thoughts, and images, won the day. The 
mathematical sciences soon won for themselves a larger place. 
Thus, the " seven-pathed " course was expanded. Soon the clas- 
sical educators began to look upon the new course as the scho- 
lastics looked on the old one ; it was complete and must not 
be disturbed. Innovations were resisted with a stubbornness 
that amounted to Ijigotry, Classicists now say the classics are 
'' the best Manual of Humanity ";* then they said they were the 
only manual. They now argue that classics rank cmi07ig " the 
studies best fitted to prepare a man for the most efficient and 
successful discharge of public duty ;'"f then that no other studies 
would do this work. In one of his attacks on Oxford, Sidney 
Smith wrote : " A set of lectures upon political economy would 
be discouraged, probably despised, probably not permitted." J 
What a confiict the new sciences of nature ])assed through be- 
fore any of them found a resting place in the curriculum ! But 
the field of knowledge was all tlie time widening ; new studies in 
social science, in natural science, in mathematics, in history, in 
language, in art, in literature, were springing up everyday. The 
classicists stubbornly asserted that that metaphysical entity named 
" the course'' was theirs by right, — stubbornly asserted tliat its 
seal, the Bachelor's degree, was their i)eculiar proi)erty. But 
that the battle has been going against them, is shown by the fact 
that they have been compelled to recognize new courses of study, 
and to accept the 'modifier "classical" as descriptive of their 
own. But what have the colleges and universities done with the 
new studies? Some of them have been admitted into what we 
must now call the " classical course "; others have been put into 
the new courses of study organized to meet the demands of grow- 
ing knowledge ; and many more are still outside the range ot col- 
lege and university teaching. What wonder that college men 

* Gold win Smith. I- Pres't Porter, Yale College. % EdirOyurgh Eevicw, 1809. 



OUR COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 29 

should be bewildered and not know wiiich way to turn ! How 
great a change has passed over the world since the day when 
copies of only four of the F^atin classics were found in the Uni- 
versity library at Paris, and since Roger Bacon wrote : 

" The scientific works of Aristotle, of Avicenna, of Seneca, of Cicero and 
other ancients cannot be had without gi-eat cost; their principal works have 
not been translated into Latin, and copies of others are not to be found in or- 
dinary libraries or elsewhere. The admirable books of Cicero de Republica are 
not to be foimd anj' where, so far as I can hear, though I have made anxious in- 
quiry for them in different parts of the woild, and by various messengers. I 
could never find the works of Seneca, though I made diligent search for them 
during twenty years and more. And so it is with many more most useful books 
connected \vith the science of morals."* 

The enormous growth of knowiedge since the days of Friar 
Bacon lias destroyed the very possibility of "a course" in the 
scholastic or old-classical sense of the word. 

Historically, the American college is an offshoot of the Eng- 
lish university. The idea of '■' a course " and the course itself 
were thus received. In fact, the idea took on a more highly crys- 
tallized form here than it had in Europe. The class system w^as 
differentiated. Four years, it was concluded, were sufficient for 
a properly prepared student to finish the course of liberal study. 
These years were called " Freshman,"" "• Sophomore," ''Junior," 
and " Senior ;'" two of these names being made by adapting cur- 
rent English words to a new meaning, the other two by borrow- 
ing and adapting cant terms from the University of Cambridge f 

In the words of Prof. Beers : 

"The com-se of study pursued at old Yale, as at old Harvard, was based 
on the ancient scholastic curriculum of the English universities, the back-bone of 
which was theology. By 1700 Oxford and Cambridge had added to this some- 
what of science and elegant scholarship. " X 

•'The first American Colleges,"' says President Porter, "were 
also primarily founded as training schools for the clergy, but as 
the other professions came to require a liberal culture, this spe- 
cial reference to the clerical profession was laid aside." § The 
ecclesiastical parentage of Harvard is shown by the legend on its 
seal, Christo et Ecclesice, — "To Christ and the Church." For 

* Green's Short History of the Etiglish People, Harper & Bro. , p. 162. 

+ See Prof. C. A. Goodrich's note on " Sophomore " in Webster's Dictionary. 

X Scribner^s Monthly, " Yale College," April, 1876. 

§ The American Colleges, p. 73. 



30 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

a long time the American course of college study was meagre, and 
much of the instruction very inferior. George Ticknor, one of the 
most cultured scholars our country has produced, at the age of ten 
years received from President Wheelock of Dartmouth, a certifi- 
cate of admission into that institution. Mr. Ticknor says : " I 
only remember that he examined me in Cicero's orations and 
the Greek Testament." He says " the whole thing was a form, 
perhaps a farce." Young Ticknor entered Dartmouth at the 
age of fourteen, and graduated two years later. Edward Everett 
graduated from Harvard at the age of seventeen. Ticknor says 
of himself, that "he was idle in college and learnt little" But 
Dartmouth was then a small school in the Avoods, and the disci- 
pline was no doubt better at the older seats of learning. The 
literary poverty of the country at that time is forcibly illustrated 
by a further incident in the life of Mr. Ticknor. After mucli 
consultation and thought, it was decided that he should go to 
Germany to study. He found it almost impossible to get even 
the most general information concerning the German universi- 
ties. He learned something from Madame De Stael, something- 
more from Villers, and was especially astounded by an account 
of the library of Gottingen, -received at second or third hand 
from an Englishman. He says: "I was sure I should like 
to study at such a university, but it was in vain that I en- 
deavored to get further knowledge upon the subject. I would 
gladly have prepared for it by learning the language I should 
have to use there, but there was no one to teach me." To us it 
seems almost incredible that there was no one in Boston in 1814 
who could teach German, but such was the fact. The matter 
was got along with in this way : A Dr. Brosius residing at 
Jamaica Plains, a native of Strasburg. undertook to teach the 
eager pupil the language, though warning him that his pronun- 
ciation was that of' Alsace. A French-German grammar (an 
English-German being out of the question) was borrowed from 
Mr. Everett, and young Ticknor sent to New Hampshire, where 
he knew there was a German dictionary and procured it, while 
a "AVerther" was borrowed from the stock of books left behind 
him by John Quincy Adams, then in Europe.* No facts known 

* The Life, and Leltera, and Journals of Oeoiye Ticknor, J. R. Osgood & 
Co., 18()(), pp. n, 14, ;>(). 



Ol'R COMMON'-ScHOor. KDICATION*. 



31 



to me throw a more curious light on the conditions of culture in 
the United States in the first quarter of this century ! 

One of the most interesting educational documents puhlished 
Avithin the year is the " Historical Sketch of Union College," 
prepared in compliance with an invitation from the Commission- 
ers of the Bureau of Education, rojiresenting the Department of 
the Interior, in matters relating to the National Centennial of 
1876, printed at the Government Printing House, Washington. 
One of the most interesting parts of this sketch is the view of 
the '*' Classical Course of Study in Union College at Different 
Periods." The i)eriods are nearly decennial, reaching from 1802 to 
1875. The following exhibit brings the two extremes together: 

Fl^KSII.MAN YEAR. 



"The Freshman Class shall studj- 
the Latin. Greek and English Lan- 
guages, Arithmetic, Sheridan's Lec- 
tures on Elocution, and shall wi-ite 
such Latin Exerc-ises as the Faculty 
may api)i)int." 



First Term. — Livy. Xenophon : 
Homer. Algebra (continued) to "Se- 
ries." Greek Prose Composition. 
Latin Prose Composition. 

Second Term. — Horace. Xeno- 
phon ; Homer : Herodotus. Algebra 
comjjleted. Greek Pi-ose Composi- 
tion. Latin Pjose Composition. 

Third Term.— Cicero de Senectute 
and de Amicitia. Xenophon ; Hero- 
dotus ; Euripides. Geometry — Books 
VI to IX. Trigonometry. Rhetoric, 
with Compo.sition and Declamation. 
Greek Prose Composition. Latin 
Pro.se Composition. 



SOPHOMORE YEAR. 



1S02. 



"The Sophomore Class shall study 
Geography, Algebra, Vulgar and 
Decimal Fractions, the Extraction of 
Roots, Conic Sections, Euclid's Ele- 
ments, Trigonometry, Surveying, 
Mensuration of Heights and Distan- 
ces, Navigation, Logic, Blair's Lec- 
tures, and such parts of eminent 
authors in the learned Languages as 
the Officers in College shall pre- 
.scribe. " 



1875. 

First Term.— Tacitus. Euripides : 
JEschylus. History of the United 
States. Rhetoric — Art of Discourse. 
Review of Freshman Mathematics. 

Secoxd Term. — Juvenal and Tei- 
rence. Eui'ipides ; -iEschylus. Conic 
Sections. Logic. 

Third Term— Horace— Satires and 
Epistles. Euripides ; Sophocles ; Plato. 
Statics and Dynamics. Study of Man. 
Botany (voluntary). History. 



32 



OUR COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 



JUNIOR YEAR. 



isoa. 



"The Junior Class shall stiidj' the 
Elements of Criticism, Astronomy, 
Natural and Moral Philosophy, and 
shall perform such exercises in the 
higher branches of the Mathematics 
s the Faculty shall prescribe.*' 



Ib7.5. 



First Term. — Cicero — Tusculan 
Disputations. Sophocles ; ^schylus 
Thucydides. Mechanical Work— Hj-- 
drostatics, Hydrodynamics, Pneu- 
matics. Elocution. Political Econ- 
omy. 

Second Term. — Lucretius or Quin- 
tilian. Plato ; Demosthenes. Elocu- 
tion. Heat ; Steam-Engine ; Elec- 
tricity; Meteorology. Physiology. 
Ethics. 

Third Term.— Acoustics ; Magnet- 
ism ; Galvanism ; Electro-Magnetism. 
Chemistry. History of Civilization. 
Zoologj-. Botany. 



SENIOR YEAR. 



I S75. 



" The Senior Class shall study select 
portions of Ancient and Modern His- 
tory, such parts of Locke's Essay on 
the Human Understanding as the 
President shall direct, Stewart's Ele- 
ments of the Philosophy of the Human 
Mind, and shall review the principal 
studies of the preceding j'ears, and 
also such portions of Virgil, Cicero 
and Horace as the President shall 
direct, and shall be accustomed to 
apply the principles of criticism." 



First Term.— Optics: Wave Theory 
of Light and Radiant Heat. Mental 
Philosophy. Lectures on Greek Phi- 
losophy. Geology. Plato contra 
Athens (voluntary). Applied Chemis- 
try. Chemical Laboratory Exercises. 

Second Term.— Astronomy. Eth- 
ics. Christian Evidences. Lectui'es 
on Greek Philosophy and Poetiy. 
Aristophanes — Birds or Clouds (volun- 
tai'y). Hebrew (voluntary). English 
Literatm-e. Lectures on the Bible. 
Comparative Philology. •■ 

Third Term. — Christian Ethics. 
International Law and Constitution 
of the United States. Lectures on 
English Poetry. Lectures on English 
Literature. Lectm-es on Biblical Lit- 
eratiu-e. Lectures on Greek Poetiy. 
Lectm-es on Art. Lectm-es on His- 
tory. Mineralogy (voluntary). 



It will be seen that the second column is more crowded than 
the JBrst, partly because the analysis is more minute, but prin- 
cipally because new studies have been introduced. Nothing will 
more clearly show the increasing demands made by the length- 
ened curriculum on hoth college students and college instructors. 



OUK COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION, 33 

No doubt tlie instruction given at Union has considerably im- 
proved since 1802, but we cannot suppose that it has improved 
in depth as much as in breadtli. 

Now the college boy of 1802, with his Latin and Greek and 
matliematics, if he had a competent instructor, had an oppor- 
tunity to learn a few things well.* Whether he did, I do not 
inquire. But it is certain that much of the college work now 
done is exceedingly superficial. Glancing at the time given to 
such studies as psychology, logic, English literature, not to men- 
tion many others, it is clear that it must be so. It is true, the 
time of })reparation has been lengthened ; that students on the 
average are older than they were in the college days of George 
Ticknor and Edward Everett, and therefore able to do more 
work ; but the time is still too short. It is hardly an exaggera- 
tion to say, that the^ studies now crowded into a single term re- 
quire two. As a result, the hurry and rush of college life now 
contrast strangely with the leisure and composure of the olden 
time. 

What, then, do the interests of the higher education require ? 
Plainly that fewer studies shall be attempted. This seems the 
only i)ractical alternative to increasing shallowness. College 
educators must not be tyrannized over by the idea of "a course." 
In its old sense, that became impracticable when knowledge 
l)asscd fco far beyond its old bounds. A '* course," in the sense 
that the "three" and the '-seven" were a course, would now 
re([uire the days of Methuselah. There may be a list of studies 
more or less judiciously selected ; this may be made nearly uni- 
form in different colleges, so far as the amount and quality 
of the work is concerned ; the Bachelor's degree may be 
sacredly kept to mark the completion of these studies ; but 
this list is something different from the old curriculum, Nor 
has the word "university" preserved its former meaning. In 



* A writer in the New York Evenivg Pout, the last summer, took pains to poin 
out in an interesting article that " There were in the Continental Congress dur- 
ing its existence -SoO members. Of those, 118, or about one-third of the whole, 
were graduates from colleges. * * * Fifty-six delegates signed the Declara- 
tion of Independence. Of these, 28, or just one-half, were college graduates." 
A look at the courses of study in which these men graduated would be interest- 
ing. But there can be no doubt that the Continental Congress represented the 
highest culture of that day much better than the present Congress represents 
the cult\n-e of to-day. 



34 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION". 

the classical sense, the word carries the idea of completeness. It 
was given to a school when it embraced, according to the preva- 
lent ideas, all liberal studies, — now a plain impossibility. When 
Mr. Erza Cornell wrote, " I would found an institution where 
any person can find instruction in any study," he expressed a 
very exalted but wholly impracticable ideal. In adopting the 
words as a legend, the authorities of the university that Mr. 
Cornell founded cannot look forward to their realization. 

Perhaps it is not going too far to say that, in the future, the 
men of broadest culture must be specialists. Says Mr. F. B. 
Perkins : 

" Four centuries ago, in the early days of printing," a. popular encyclopaedia, 
or the book that then stood for such, instead of being twenty -one quarto vol- 
umes, like the Eticyclopcedia Britannira, or even ten large octavos, like Cham- 
bers's Cyoropndia, was one small quarto volume, with not so great an extent 
of reading in it as the Old Testament. And there was then really nothing so 
very absurd in a man's professing all that was known. There is a well known 
Latin phrase of the period that describes such a man : qui tria, qui seiitem, qui 
omue scibile novif, i. e., ' who knows the three, the seven, in short all that there 
is know.'" 

But now, to quote Prof. Wm. Matthews : 

" The day of encyclops^dic scholarship has gone by. Even that ill-defined 
creature, 'a well informed man,' is becoming every year more and more rare; 
but the Huets, and the Scaligers, the Bacons, ' who take all knowledge to be 
their province,' and the Liebnitzes, 'who presimie to drive all the sciences 
abreast, " must soon become as extinct as the megatherium or the ichthyosaurus. " * 

Some studies are indispensable to culture, but too many wholly 
prevent it. In the Avords of the last writer, "A mill will not 
go if there is too little water, but it will jje as effectually stopped 
if there be too much." 

The argument for limiting, and even reducing, the number of 
studies in the college course is just as strong, and even stronger, 
when applied to the common schools. The proposition to skim 
a considerable part of the field of knowledge in these schools 
must be dismissed as at war with their genius, and as fatal to 
thorough instruction. ' It maybe wise or foolish to go on calling 
them " the people's colleges," but it will certainly be foolish if 
the name fosters the opinion that they are or can be made col- 
leges in reality. By limiting the field of teaching, the present 
minute division of time can be prevented ; and there will then 

'^ Public Libraries of the United Mates, published by the National Bureau 
of Education, articles, " Professorships of Books and Reading," pp. ^33, '^44. 



OUR ro:\[MON-sf;HOOL EOiTATrox. 35 

lie an opportunity for the faithful public-school teacher to ground 
Jiis pupils in the elementary branches of learning. 

Here it is pertinent to inquire whether the graded schools are 
not in some degree missing the real point. Some statistics well 
known to Cleveland teachers will illustrate my question. 

In the year 18?5, according to Superintendent Rickoff's Report 
for that year, there Avere enrolled in the Cleveland schools 19,705 
]nipils. Of these 15,333 were in the primary grades : 4,372 in 
the grammar grades; and 615 in the higher grades. More 
minutelv. these students were distributed as follows : 



Eighth Year 444 

Ninth '• :i7a 

Tenth " 1(50 

Eleventh '• ... !t:j 

Twelfth " 40 

Normal School 50 



First Year 6,;«C 

Second " 3,o88 

Third " :!,109 

Fourth '• -ZMl'i 

Fifth " 1,658 

Sixth " 1,007 

Seventh " ' ()48 i 

Iiejecting the Normal School pupils, only one pupil in thirty- 
five is in the High School. 

In other cities the figures run much the same way, though in 
the East, especially in Boston, the pujiils in the higher grades 
are relatively consideral)Iy more. 

Now, it would be interesting to know two things : Fird, 
what proportion of pupils in towns and cities enter the high 
school ? mcond, how lOng the average })upil attends school ? 
Superintendent Rickoff's tables do not answer either question 
for Cleveland, though they warrant approximations. It seems 
clear that the average attendance of the Cleveland pupil does not 
reach much beyond five years. My question, then, is this : What 
influence this fact should have, if any, on the organization of 
the City schools, especially on the course of study ? One thing 
the above figures certainly do— they demonstrate that the great 
work of the public schools is, and must be, to teach the ele- 
mentary branches. If they turn out poor readers and spellers, 
poor grammarians and arithmeticians, by the thousand, it is 
small consolation to know that they send a few boys to 
college well prepared. City boards and teachers must all the 
while have their eyes on the pupil who attends the averatje time 
I strike no blow at the higher grades. All I say is, the studies 
of the lower grades must not be chosen from a high-school point 
of view. If the two points of view are only one, very well. It is 



36 OUR COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

vain to reply that all the pupils have access to the higher grades. 
In a city or town of given elements, intellectual, industrial, 
social, and moral, the average pupil will go to school about so 
long. It is the especial mission of the public schools to give that 
pupil the best training he can have in the given time. 

Thus far nothing has been said of the qualifications of teachers 
as a part of the common-school problem, except in the single 
feature of the enslavement of many of them to routine. Nor 
shall I here touch this question, save in a single feature. 

No change in our public-school economy is more striking tluin 
the general, in fact almost universal, substitution of women for 
men as teachers. It is admitted that, as an element in the 
woman question, the change is to be welcomed; but how it is as 
a part of jthe school question can hardly be said to have caused 
discussion. Female teachers are commended to boards of edu- 
cation and to tax-payers by their cheapness ; they are sometimes 
commended to SujDerintendents by the fact that they are more 
pliable and manageable than men. It is admitted, too, that 
women make excellent teachers — for some kinds of work, better 
than men. In fact, the ability of the American woman as a 
teacher, has attracted the attention of intelligent foreigners who 
come here to study our system. Bishop Fraser says Americans 
generally have ''a much greater natural aptitude for the work 
of a teacher," than Englishmen, '^and particularly the Ameri- 
can women." These also are the Bishop's words : 

"They certainly have the gift of turning what they do know to the best 
accoiint ; they are self-possessed, energetic, fearless ; they are admirable 
disciplinaries, firm without severity, patient without weakness : their manner 
of teaching is lively and fertile in illustrations ; classes are not likely to i^ll 
asleep in their hands." 

The Bishop recognizes some defects, but says ''they are proud 
of their position," "fired with a laudable ambition to maintain 
the credit of their school," '/a very fine and capable body of 
Avorkers in a noble cause."* All of this is worthily said, and is 
well deserved. But President Eliot has pointed out that women 
are not so likely to succeed in the higher walks of teaching as 
men, from two facts : that marriage generally puts an end to their 
period of service, and that they have not the physical endurance 
of men. Hence he argues that the general employment of 

* Quoted by Mr. Adams, Free Schools of the United States, p. 194. 



OUR COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 37 

women as teachers leads to frequent changes in the schools. This 
is his languaofe : 

" The employment of women in the schools in the enormous proportion in 
which they are now employed in many towns and cities, is an unwise economy, 
because it inevitablj- tends, first, to make the body of teachers a changing, 
fluctuating body, fast thinned and fast recruited ; and secondly, to make teach- 
ing not a life work, as it ought to be, but a temporary resort on the way to an- 
other mode of life." * 

Mr. Francis Adams confirms this view with some statistics 
drawn from English experience : 

" In England scarcely one in twenty of the female teachers reaches her tenth 
year of service. Of the feniale teachers traiiied at Bishop's Stortford, it has 
been ascertained that the average school life was under five years. " + 

Both the premises and the inference drawn from them seem 
undeniable.^ Mr. Adams uses the language of moderation when 
he say.^ : 

" Female teachers may have other advantages over males, and in the United 
States are generally considered to have, but the length of the school life is not 
one of them." 

I would respectfully urge the following considerations. A 
woman is not a man. The question of her inferiority or superior- 
ity to man, is not hero in controversy. Superior or inferior, she is a 
woman. To raise here the question of the relative standing of the 
sexes in the scale of being, is an impertinence. "Who asks whether 
a painting is a finer work of art than a statue or a temple? Who 
asks even whether Angelo or Raphael is the greater artist ? The 
two cannot, on the whole, be compared. They are different. 
Now, men make excellent teachers, and so do women ; but the 
one is not the other. The ideal male teacher has some qualities 
that the ideal female teacher has not ; and vice versa. What 
these qualities are, need not at the close of this long paper be 

* Wise and Unwise Economy in Schools. 

+ Pp. 177-8. 

X Mr. T. W. Higginson, in The Journal of Education, attempts to turn this 
position: •' I have had no leisure," he says, "though I have tried to find it, to 
carrj' this investigation further than my own residence, but of the permanent 
teachers employed by the Citj^ of Newport for 187.5-6, the 3.5 women have had a 
collective term of service in this city of 382 years — giving an average of 8.0G 
years ; and the men, now six in number, show a collective service of 25 years, 
and an average of 4.2.3 years." Hence he suspects that President Eliot's argu- 
ment rests on mere guess-work. But an inductive inquiry must have a broader 
basis than this, and must include cities where marriageable women do not so 
abound as they do in New England. 



38 OITR OOMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

specified. The fact is admitted. The inference is just this : in 
education, the young mind should be brought into contact with 
both masculine and feminine qualities. I do not say the places 
should be equally distributed between the sexes ; bo far from that, 
I am Avilling that the women shall be in a decided majority, and 
do not think the schools would suffer in consequence ; but I do 
say the masculine aud feminine forces should be represented in 
their full power. Now, it is well known that often in a group 
of schools containing from one to three thousand children, you 
will find only one man employed, and he the Superintendent 
who does little or no teaching. Even in Cleveland, with an 
average monthly enrolment of 16,079 pupils,- and 351 teachers 
on the roll, only 27 are males, including Superintendents and 
special teachers. Now, if there be any force in the position 
that the peculiar qualities of both men and women should be 
blended in education, must it not be confessed that the substitu- 
tion of women for men in the public schools has gone too far ? 
Sentiment to the contrary, I must avow that as my own opinion. 






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